Lifestyle

Americans, caught up in the daily struggles of their own lives would be astonished to discover the degree and amount of news coverage America receives in the press of other nations and they would be even more astonished to see the depth of interest in us from ordinary individuals in other countries.

People all over the world pay close attention to America and what we will and won¹t do. Our policies, actions and non-actions are reported upon and broadcast via satellite, internet, and print every day by international news companies and agencies all over the world.

This is appropriate to a nation whose prosperity and indebtedness is directly linked to the fate of other nations. When America does well in the marketplace, it ripples out. The old saying, “a rising tide lifts all boats” is true. It is very clear that what happens here affects the lives of others around the world. Almost all sell their products and agricultural surpluses to America, a nation where consumption is an obsession. We are, after all, the inventors of the supermarket, the shopping mall, and the charge account.

America holds title “leader of the free world.” This has been bestowed upon us. Delivered every day by the press of the world; a press that has often been educated and trained in the U.S. Children from all nations come here by the tens of thousands to be educated and trained. They return to their countries strongly aware of the freedoms, comforts, and security Americans enjoy.

“How sweet it is!” No, that’s not the late, great Jackie Gleason roaring out his signature line from a club in Miami Beach. It’s the liberal media exulting over this weekend’s homosexual pride celebrations and the advent of same-sex “marriage” in California.

In a story headlined “Marchers savor marriage ruling, celebrate gay pride,” the Sacramento Bee announced that “Scores of gay rights advocates rallied and marched Friday at the state Capitol – not to lament and protest, but to rejoice.” Why? Because Friday’s “second annual Sacramento Dyke March” was “a time to savor history.”

The Bee had nothing on The Washington Post, which shamelessly celebrated D.C.’s Capital Pride Festival. On Friday the Post put the festival on the cover of its Weekend section, with a feature story by staff writer Ellen McCarthy and a headline stating “Pride…brings 200,000 People to the District’s gay and lesbian festival.”

In the print version, McCarthy’s story was headlined “Proud Crowd” and sported a picture of a gay male dance troupe, the DC Cowboys, clad in tight blue jeans and showing off bare, shaven torsos. Inside were photos of a transvestite and a lesbian rock band, Wicked Jezabel. The online version was headlined “Proud Voices: People Behind the Festival Talk About Why This Is a Special Weekend.”

Generation Y, those born between the late 1970s and during the 1980s, is now entering the work force and, in the process they are transforming it, requiring Baby Boomers now facing retirement and Generation X’ers, born in the mid-1960s to late 70s, to face up to our short comings in our ability to negotiate.

Becoming better negotiators as a society will take us a long way down the road to protecting America’s future, both domestically and internationally. We must face it. Being able to negotiate with this cohort, estimated to number 70 million, is going to transform America’s workplace and is likely to impact the way we deal with the rest of the World in the future.

As the inventor of the Camp System of Negotiation and the father of five children and six grandchildren, any parent will tell you that every child hears “no” as the start of the negotiation, not the end of it! Yet, we as a society are behind the children. We are steeped in compromise and will do almost anything to not say no or hear no. Simply put, we are compromisers.

Thus, a generation that has grown up believing that compromise is the only approach to resolving problems is discovering in Generation Y a very different point of view. This new generation is causing us baby boomers heartburn by essentially saying “NO” to values that us older folks believe.

A coalition of Mexican unions and social movements has been calling for a continental workers’ campaign for a living wage and social justice in the three NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) countries.

The original call was made in November 2006. It is being followed by new efforts to develop this campaign (see below). It emerges in the context of the impasses of the North American labour movement and the continuing competitive pressures on wages and incomes of working people.

Capitalism, by its very nature, pits individual workers and different labour forces against each other in the search for jobs. It also promotes competition among workers through a variety of strategies. The two-tier workplace strategy is a good example of how this is carried out within plants and within a single industry. It also promotes this competitiveness through the cultural promotion of individualism and consumerism. As well, capitalist enterprises take advantage of pre-existing differences and tensions between groups (ethnic groups, different nationalities, men/women, domestic-born/immigrant), to enhance their divide and rule strategy. These strategies have always been an important part of capitalism.